After a little more than a decade in existence, one of the industry’s leading telematics providers, Samsara, is getting its first makeover. The new look includes a color change from electric blue to high-vis yellow (similar to Caterpillar and Fluke), while the logo has matured from a simple, egg-shaped owl to an edgier, more vigilant version of the nocturnal raptor. The typeface is now bolder and capitalized, replacing a softer font and lower-case letters.

The rebrand better aligns with Samsara’s customers in transportation, construction, energy, and other physically demanding jobs, according to Meagen Eisenberg, chief marketing officer at Samsara.

“We drew the new visual identity from worksites, truck cabs, and field operations, so that the identity reflected the reality of their work: bold, grounded, and physically tactile, just like the worksite,” the CMO said, adding that the company conducted dozens of jobsite interviews and levegeraged its Customer Advisory Board to find out how best to execute the redesign, the same process used to develop new products, such as Samsara Tracking Label and AI Multicam. 

The most recent innovation is Agent Studio, which allows users to build their own custom AI agent to automate time-consuming tasks, such as flagging warranty claims or creating maintenance reports.

Samsara reported $1 billion has been invested in innovating new products since its founding, leading to upwards of 200 new features added per year.

Brand evolution

Samsara, which in Sanskrit translates to the cycle, began in 2015 as a Bay Area startup. It was founded by two proven entrepreneurs: Sanjit Biswas and John Bicket, who three years prior sold their cloud-based networking startup, Meraki, to Cisco for $1.2 billion. They (correctly) identified how vital telematics and the Internet of Things would be to commercial fleet operations and formed Samsara. The owl was chosen to represent wisdom and foresight, referring to the data the platform could provide to help customers innovate operations and improve safety, efficiency, and maintenance.

Capitalizing on an emerging technology in a major industry worked; Samsara manifested $25 million in its Series A funding almost immediately. And the company has not looked back, unifying the telematics, physical hardware, and analytics into the cloud-based Connected Operations Platform in 2021. In addition to Samsara tools, the platform hosts several hundred integration partners.

The company said it now generates $2 billion in annual recurring revenue, growing at a 30% year-over-year clip. Its AI-powered coaching and asset tracking account for around $150 million in ARR, driving 20% of net new business.